08/27/2008

By MATTHEW DALY  / Associated Press

Barack Obama's choice of Delaware Sen. Joe Biden as his running mate should provide a strong boost for Obama among Jewish voters, Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden says.

Wyden, who is Jewish, said that for many Jews, Biden "is a mishpokhe (mish-pohk-eh)," a Yiddish word that translates as "member of the family."

Biden, who is Irish Catholic, earned that status through decades of showing up at Jewish political, civic and religious events — down to the level of bar mitzvah, Wyden said Wednesday.

"For decades he been the go-to person for our community," Wyden said of Biden, who has served in the Senate for 35 years. "I can't tell you how many federations, banquets, policy forums he's come to as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. This is a guy who for many in the Jewish community really is like family."

Some Jewish voters have expressed concern about Obama's candidacy, in part because his father came from a Muslim family, even though Obama is a Christian.

Wyden said Obama will do fine among Jews, and said Obama's real problem is that he is relatively new on the scene and therefore not well-known among voters.

"I want the record first to show that Senator Obama has been the target of some of the most vicious, ugly, almost evil kind of comments linking him to radical Islam," Wyden said in a phone interview from Denver, where is chairing the Oregon delegation to the Democratic National Convention.

The attacks against Obama — many of them false rumors spread on the Internet — are unprecedented and "really are slanderous in every respect," Wyden said, adding that Obama and his supporters have done a good job in recent months combatting rumors, including persistent statements that he is Muslim.

Wyden was among a group of Jewish senators who sent a letter in January decrying personal attacks on Obama, saying they had no place in American politics.

Obama, who recently traveled to Israel and the Middle East, is becoming better known and will become even more so after he is the party's official nominee, Wyden said. "I think he's going to do better and better (among Jewish voters) as he becomes increasingly well-known."

In the Pacific Northwest, enthusiasm for Obama is high, Wyden said.

Support for Obama goes beyond urban centers such as Portland and Eugene, Wyden said, noting that some rural voters in central and eastern Oregon have told him they know — and appreciate_ that Obama is a co-sponsor of a bill Wyden is pushing to reauthorize a law extending payments to rural counties hurt by federal logging cutbacks.

"They are really excited that Obama is on the county payments legislation," Wyden said, referring to the bill by its nickname.

Obama "has been able to connect with folks in the Northwest on real bread-and-butter issues like gas prices and health care and the survival of rural counties — which is what county payments is really about," Wyden said.

Wyden also praised Democratic Senate candidate Jeff Merkley, who is in Denver this week and was scheduled to speak to the full convention on Wednesday.

"I think what Jeff is doing is again showing the cost of the flawed policies of the last eight years and what it's going to take to turn things around," Wyden said.

Wyden, who is attending the convention with his wife Nancy and 10-month-old twins Ava and William, said he is having a "wonderful" time in Denver.

The Wydens took their children to the convention floor Tuesday night. Ava, in particular, showed an affinity for politics — smiling, waving and posing for pictures, her father said.

"She was having the time of her life. She's a ham and she's loving it," he said.